“The scale of automation in our economy is increasing far faster than most people realize, and its impact on working people in America and across the world, unless corralled, will be devastating,” de Blasio wrote before citing a report that 36 million jobs could be lost to automation in the future.

If elected, de Blasio would create a new federal agency, the Federal Automation and Worker Protection Agency, which would oversee automation.

Under this plan, employers who automate jobs would need to create new jobs for displaced workers, or provide adequate severance. Companies that don’t comply would be subject to a “robot tax.”

“[Employers] would be required to pay five years of payroll taxes up front for each employee eliminated,” de Blasio wrote. “That revenue would go right into a new generation of labor-intensive, high-employment infrastructure projects and new jobs in areas such as health care and green energy that would provide new employment.”

“Displaced workers would be guaranteed new jobs created in these fields at comparable salaries. A “robot tax” will help us create stable, good-paying middle-class jobs for generations to come."